At the ISPP, focus is not only on imparting public policy training in its basic essence, but to ensure the following:
The imagination was clear. The country needs young people in handling its complex governance challenges. And they want to do that. The government as well as corporate bodies are increasingly becoming open to attracting such a talent in their policymaking exercises. And yet, there is a perceived lack of high quality public policy programmes in India. The ISPP emerged as a space to fill this gap.
The School is an outcome of eminent councils of policy makers, industry leaders, philanthropists and academicians coming together, recognizing the need for cultivating future policy professionals and leaders of the country and beyond.
The idea is to be able to carve out a highly advanced, rigorous and agile programme on policy, which is taught by an outstanding faculty in the discipline. The Faculty, Board and Governing Council comprise of people with diverse experience in engaging with policymaking at multiple levels. The patrons, who have supported us by their generous grants, include people like Nandan Nilekani, Vallabh Bhansali and Jaithirth Rao.
Industry partnerships are evolving in nature. Even before its inception, the ISPP has been able to build a strong network of industry partners at multiple levels. Some our partners include: Uber, Deloitte, Skill India, Ernst & Young, PwC, Samhita, Dasra, Manipal Educational Group, among others. Many others, like NASSCOM, CII, Observer Research Foundation, National Skill Development Corporation, APCO Worldwide have offered strong endorsements. More on: https://www.ispp.org.in/industry-partners/
The Indian School of Public Policy holds meaningful support from leading corporate organizations, government wings and non-profit groups.
For us, this support is reflected in engaging with industry in designing the curriculum, conducting policy action exercises, borrowing mentors, facilitating live projects on policy practice for our students’ projects, and placements for our graduates.
The career opportunities in the public policy domain haves grown manifold over the past few years in India. They will be able to attract public policy graduates in time to come:
This varies widely depending on your background, experience and skills. But also more importantly on the industry you will be working in and the ongoing demand.
Approximate figures could be as under (this is only an indication and actual figures may vary beyond these numbers):
Fresh Graduates – Rs. 5-9 lakhs per annum
1-3 years of experience – Rs. 7-10 lakhs per annum
> 4 years of experience – Rs. 12-15 lakhs per annum
The above will vary depending on the function/role and the individual’s experience.
ISPP offers generous scholarships to deserving candidates. Scholarship amounts range from 10% of the tuition to 100% of the tuition fee. These are offered on a merit-cum-means basis.
Scholarships are based on merit and means both together. The same is assessed through a financial aid form which the candidate has to fill and submit along with the application form. Post this, the candidate has to bring original documents to be verified by the admissions team on the day of the interview and GD (if shortlisted). The final decision is taken by the financial aid committee considering both merit and need. This decision is non-negotiable and subject to candidate’s background verification if the committee requires so.
Three things increase the likelihood of receiving a scholarship, and its quantum. They are: firstly your merit, reflected in your application form, interview and group discussion. Secondly, how much in need of a scholarship you are. Since this is donors’ money, it must be valued even more. We try to be as objective and careful as possible in awarding scholarships. Thirdly, your chances of securing a scholarship become higher, the earlier you apply to our programme, since selections are on rolling basis.
The campus is located in Qutab Institutional Area, Delhi. It is spread over 5000 sq. ft., and designed keeping in mind the importance of community space, as well as diverse the pedagogical orientation of such a space. The campus consists of a large classroom, smaller tutorial rooms, faculty space, a lounge for the students to read/work. A cafeteria and ample green cover give the campus a more relaxed touch.
Qutab Institutional Area in Delhi is a unique space, and is home to many premier educational institutes like the IIFT, IMI Delhi, FORE School of Management and similar. The entire area is buzzing with students, and adjacent to Delhi’s largest green cover (Sanjay Van); it is very conveniently located, and well-connected to the airport, Gurgaon and Central Delhi. Basic public amenities like hospitals, a police station, public transport et cetera lie in close proximity.
ISPP will not provide residential facilities for the entire year of programme. However, we will provide first two months of free accommodation near the campus for any student who wants to avail of this facility. We understand that students from all over India apply to our programme and we would like to help them settle when they join our programme.
The answer lies in the philosophy of public policy pedagogy as well as in regulatory bottlenecks in India.
This was a carefully thought-through decision. The one-year architecture of the programme is not new. Prominent public policy programmes around the world, including Chicago (Harris) and Harvard (Kennedy) are one-year Masters programmes. In India, most programmes take two years, because UGC only recognizes two-year programmes as Masters programmes. This is a drain on time, when adequate skills and approaches can be taught within a year in public policy domains.
The whole idea is to equip students with essential knowledge and skills in order to make them job-ready for a successful career in the public policy domain. In order to maintain the flexibility and dynamism needed to incorporate all important information, knowledge and latest advances in the public policy domain, we decided to keep the programme independent of a government regulatory mechanism, permitting the freedom and innovation required to successfully execute such a programme.
The ISPP programme has been designed to be independent of the constraints of an existing university or regulatory structure. We felt an independent programme will suffice to offer the training we envisage. It is an industry-led programme in the true sense of the word, especially as the industry has actively participated in designing this programme, and will consistently provide useful inputs and opportunities to students throughout the programme (via field immersions, mentoring and internships).
That is right. We do not provide any degree. It is a one-year postgraduate programme, not a Masters programme, but that should not matter. India has changed drastically. Industry looks at quality before making any recruitment, and frankly, most universities have failed to signal quality from their degrees. In this time and age, signals of good quality education are conveyed through the faculty quality, people behind the programme and an advanced, agile curriculum, responsive to the needs of the industry. Since we offer exactly that, we don’t need a degree. And that is why many industry partners have begun offering their commitments and endorsements.
Indeed, several programmes, including at the prestigious ISB, Vedica Scholars, Young India Fellowship etc. operate as non-recognized certificate programmes, but with tremendous industry acceptance, because of the quality of the graduates, who complete these programmes.
The ISPP has, arguably, the best faculty in the country for public policy training. This is made possible through our commitment to high-quality teaching, and a vision to change India by producing future leaders. Our faculty comes from an eclectic background, with rich and diverse experience in academia, government, non-profits and corporates.
To be able to secure such faculty, we offer a visiting mode of professorship. While some faculty members will, indeed, be permanent, we want to ensure that simply because the faculty cannot join full time, does not mean our students cannot have them teach them. We can pick the best faculty, whenever available. It allows us to source the best talent from around the world.
We consciously want to keep the ratio of permanent faculty to visiting faculty low, as the subject of public policy demands sessions not only from acclaimed faculty, but also leaders and successful professionals from the government, public sector, private sector, non-profits and international development organizations.
We focus on mastering the general principles, and applying them to five different themes to get you ready for any domain. We will provide you domain specific mentorship and opportunities for additional assignments and projects in your domain of interest, throughout the course. At this stage, these thematic areas are: environment, urbanization, technology, health, education and national security. This list can expand or shrink depending on the type of interests our incoming cohort receives.
India is undergoing transformative political, economic, social and technological revolutions. On one hand, we are witnessing an unprecedented growth in the economy, and our emergence at the global level is being witnessed and acknowledged by all countries; at the same time, we are also trying to improve our standing as per various socio-environmental parameters like ending poverty, ensuring healthy lives, quality education, gender equality, promoting inclusive and sustainable development, protection of biodiversity, and many others.
Advances in all these fields require design and implementation of sound public policies. This can only be taken up by a new class of policy leaders, who possess the requisite knowledge, skills, ethics and wisdom to bring about desired changes in India’s socio-political and economic landscape by framing effective policies. Hence, there is a pressing need for a new generation of policy professionals, who possess all necessary traits, are well trained in understanding complex public problems and design effective solutions through the formulation of definitive public policies.
One can understand the reason for pursuing such a course from another angle. India is churning out policies like a machine. In the last several years, policy discourse has reached unseen heights. In fact, if one looks at the incumbent government’s records, one comes across a number of policy frameworks that emerged. National Policy on Biofuels 2018, National Health Policy 2017, National Steel Policy 2017, National Civil Aviation Policy 2016, National Offshore Wind Policy 2015, National Policy of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015, National Agroforestry Policy 2014 are just some of the examples at the national level. States and provinces have their own policy guidelines.
And this thrust for policies is a recent idea. As the Government shrinks from being a service provider to service facilitator, one sees the importance of policies and regulatory bodies enhance.
Interestingly, the Government has begun exhibiting significant interest in hiring people from outside the bureaucratic ranks in many of their policy and development work as consultants. NITI Aayog, the in-house government think tank, which replaced the Planning Commission, is housed by a number of young graduates from top universities in the world as their policy consultants. The Prime Minister Fellowship Scheme is an interesting initiative to attract young people in policymaking. A range of government departments and ministries are housed by young, bright graduates in various disciplines engaging in research and advisory services. In fact, as a marked departure from its tradition, the Indian government recently recruited 9 people working in the private sector into their joint secretary level (senior bureaucrats) as lateral hires, as the first ever move since independence. For the positions advertised, they received over 6000 applications. Working with/for the Government in India has never been so attractive to the private sector affluent class.
Despite the interest and willingness, there is a perceived lack of good public policy professionals in the country. This is attributed to a lack of good schools teaching public policy as a discipline. Of those that exist, almost all of them are embedded in a university set up, highly agile in absorbing the changing world with the same pace. More importantly, they offer two year degree programmes, since India does not recognize a one-year Masters degree.
Such a course will definitely be embedded within the framework of the curriculum, even if not taught separately. What we need anyway is not design, but design thinking. And design thinking is at the foundation of our pedagogical ethos. It will be taught in relation to how design complements, informs and affects public policy making. And so, the practical implications of design in the programme will reflect in the curriculum, and student experience. There will be several courses and workshops meant to infuse a design sense into students of the programme and inculcate the basics of design-thinking as a methodology.
Right now, the programme offers five focus areas: environment, urbanization, technology, health, education and national security. These are taught by some imminent names from the industry, namely Gen S S Mehta, Dr Amirullah Khan, Shreekant Gupta, Jagan Shah, ArunaSundarajan and V Santhakumar.
At ISPP, students get the opportunity to work on Immersive Learning Project, where every student gets an opportunity to work with an organization on a real policy making project. These projects are designed to enable our scholars to work on current projects at various firms and organisations, providing them an immersive learning experience. The scholars will work in groups over the period of a month to complete real life & industry projects. Besides these, there are numerous other opportunities like guest lectures, Policy Hackathon, Design Jams & Workshops, Tea & Policy series, though which our scholars get the chance to interface with the industry.
There is no internship in the programme. The one-year duration will be used to develop skills and approaches required to be a public policy professional. The programme is fairly rigorous and leaves little time to undertake an internship for several weeks.
What we do have, however, are various immersion experiences, in the form of real-life projects, mentorship by the industry and academics, and indeed, through a industry-responsive curriculum.
The ISPP’s one-year programme can certainly be used to bridge your three-year undergraduate with the fourth year, so you can apply to a Masters programme in the US, for instance. But since the ISPP does not provide a degree, it cannot be said to have replaced a Masters degree in India.
And surely, as far as its academic merit goes, the ISPP enables you to apply for programmes for advanced degrees, in any number of domains, ranging from public policy to business, analytics, political science, economics, and others.
Yes, the programme will certainly equip students with the right theoretical foundation, research and analytical skills, in order to be able to pursue a career in research, post the programme, if they so wish. The programme is academically intensive, including several research projects such as policy exercises and capstone seminars that will serve as a rich experience for students interested in building up a research portfolio.
Yes you will indeed be, in most good universities globally. This programme does not act as your masters degree, so if the eligibility of your chosen PhD programme is to have secured a masters degree, then you would not be able to join it. But if the requirement is to have finished undergraduate and a masters equivalent, then there should be no problem. A number of American universities routinely accept applications from candidates without a masters degree, to enrol them into their PhD programme, provided of course, the quality of application is good.
The tuition fee is payable in three installments. 20% of the fee has to be paid before the registration day of the programme at a specified date as per the admission round, 30% on the registration day of the programme and 50% at the middle of the course after Term 4.
Tuition Fee: Tuition fee is refundable with some deductions. If you decide to withdraw from the programme before one month from Registration, a 10% deduction will be made on the tuition fee paid until then. Until 16 August, a 50% deduction on the tuition fee paid until then will apply (note that by then, you would have paid 50% of the tuition fee). No refund will be made on or after 17 August.
The programme entails constant engagement with people on the ground who have started their own non-profits. It has developed a robust course on leadership, ethics, laws and policies of India, civil society and lobbying, regulation, public administration in practice, negotiations, delegation, impact evaluation, accounts, budgeting, grant writing, mass campaigns, contract reading, and many more skill based courses, particularly geared towards entrepreneurial aspirations. In fact some of the selected ISPP students are joining us exactly for helping build their network and knowledge to be able to start their own non-profits in their native places.
We strongly recommend that all ISPP scholars stay together at a common residence to experience peer learning, team building and bonding within the cohort. To facilitate this, ISPP will provide two months of free accommodation at Bhagvati Bhavan, Munirka (run by OYO Life) along with a complimentary transportation service between the hostel and campus and a reading room for the duration of two months (electricity and food have to be borne directly by the student). After two months, the scholars are free to make their own arrangements, either to continue in the same building or elsewhere in Delhi. Should 40 or more scholars choose to continue to stay at the same building after 2 months, ISPP will continue to provide the complimentary bus service and a reading room at the residence at ISPP’s expense.
Standard amenities & services provided by OYO Life at Bhagvati Bhavan (7-storeyed building with balconies and terraces in South Delhi):
Definitely not. The group discussion and interviews can take place in Hindi if the candidate prefers to. The application form will be in English though. Also, English will be the primary medium of instruction, but there will be classes throughout the year on Writing and Communication.
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